Pirate of Berk
by ArabianPerfection
Summary: After the defeat of the Queen Dragon, life has been much happier for Svala. The village has finally accepted her as one of their own, she's made friends with the other teenagers, and she's got a boyfriend. But life on Berk Is never dull. This is the HTTYD show from Svala's point of view. Hopefully the story is better than this crappy summary. Reviews appreciated. Snotlout x OC
1. How to Start a Dragon Academy

**How to Start a Dragon Academy**

After Hiccup defeated the Queen dragon, the people of Berk and the dragons had been getting along pretty well. There was no more killing or raids and many people rode dragons, but Hiccup and I were still the best.

"Okay, guys. Best trick competition. Who's up first?"

I was one of the best, but I wasn't _the _best. Hiccup was the leader of our odd group and we frequently trained to become better riders.

"Me!" Snotlout jumped up, flexing his biceps.

Yes. I was still dating that egomaniac, but I loved Snotlout even though many people couldn't understand why. Honestly, I was almost as much of a jerk as he was. It's why we got along so well.

"Actually, I think it's-" Fishlegs was rudely cut off my boyfriend.

"Me!" He flexed his arms the other way.

Okay. Really hard to be irritated with him when he's doing that.

"Sweet baby Thor in a thunder storm. Go!" Astrid finally lost it and pointed out to the open air.

"Oh, don't worry. We'll go and when we go Hookfang and I are going to take Svala and Strike's place as the top-two best team. We'll light the sky on… fire!"

Hookfang jumped of the cliff side and freefell straight down toward the ocean. I love it when he does stuff like that. I heard Snotlout screaming as his stubborn dragon did whatever it pleased and broke down laughing so hard I almost fell off of Strike. See, I told you I was a jerk. Luckily, Hookfang brought him back in one piece.

"I'm alive? I'm alive!" Snotlout threw his hands up in relief then noticed everyone looking at him and tried to act all macho. "Of course I am."

I smirked confidently at Snotlout. "Let me show you how a real rider does it."

I leaned down close to Strike who jumped off the cliff and swooped up in the sky. We flew almost straight up into the clouds and then when we were high enough, Strike closed his wings and we fell toward the ocean. As we fell, Strike closed his wings around us to create a marquise shape with a spike at the tip. We spun down like a torpedo, giving us a lot of extra speed. At the last second he snapped his wings open and we broke up to fly inches above the water. Only we were flying upside down. I held onto Strike as tightly as I could until we flipped back over. I flew back up to the others who all started cheering, aside from Snotlout, who was pouting with his arms crossed over his chest.

"It's my turn! Ready Meatlug? Here we go!"

Fishlegs and Meatlug flew off the cliff, flew in a circle, and flew back.

"Yes! New personal best!"

How had he not been in the same group as me and Hiccup? He is just as weird as us!

"My turn!"

"No! My turn!"

As usual, the twins were being the twins.

"Guys. Same dragon."

"Oh, right." The two of them bumped fists to make up and then took off, flying down closer to the water. Unfortunately, they couldn't agree on which way to go and crashed into a large rock pillar. Irritated, their dragon flipped them up into the air. They plummeted toward the ground, but their dragons caught them at the last second and flipped them back into their necks. When they came back, Ruffnut was collapsed over the dragon and Tuffnut was shaking.

"We almost died."

"I know… Go again?"

There was something very wrong with them.

"Hey, it's my turn."

Astrid smirked at Hiccup. "You might want to take notes."

She took off on Stormfly while Hiccup watched her go with that puppy love look on his face.

"Okay Stormfly, tail flip." The Deadly Nadder dragged it tail through the water.

"Now twirl." They spun through the air.

"Quick! Upward spiral." Now they spun going upwards.

My trick was so much better.

"Alright, Stormfly!" They flew back down and landed between me and Hiccup.

"Yeah, but can you do it without the dragon?" Snotlout said from what he thought was safely on the other side of me.

Astrid looked at me. "Could you?"

I smiled. "My pleasure." I turned and landed a punch on Snotlout's arm.

"Ow!" He rubbed his arm. "So violent... It's really hot." He grinned and leaned over toward me. I smiled and leaned over to kiss him. Yeah, I love him.

When I looked, Hiccup and Toothless had already taken off and shot down past us toward the water. They pulled up with so much force that the water parted as they flew over it. They weaved through the rocks with incredible speed and approached a bridge like formation. As they reached it, Hiccup jumped off over Toothless, ran across it, and then jumped back on. Everyone was amazed. Toothless shot three plasma blasts which exploded like fireworks.

"They're still the best."

I nodded in agreement with Astrid. Hiccup was a natural with dragons and he shared a bond with Toothless deeper than even the one I had with Strike. "And I'm still the second best."

With training done, we all flew back to Berk. What we saw was chaos. People were arguing and fighting with the dragons as they ran around uncontrollably. Nothing new. Everyone parted ways, and I went with Snotlout to his house for lunch. Since the war with the dragons ended, Hiccup was still my best friend but I wasn't glued to his side twenty-four/seven.

We landed outside his front door and left the dragons to wait there. When we went inside Snotlout's mother, Helga, was preparing dinner. She looked up as we came in and shut the door.

"Oh! Hello, kids! Svala, you're still joining us for dinner right?"

I smiled broadly at the woman and nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

Much to my surprise, Snotlout's parents actually liked me. The whole dragon thing had gotten me a lot of respect in the village and the Vikings finally accepted me as one of them.

She grinned back at me. "Excellent! Dinner should be really in a couple hours. We're having roasted lamb, salted fish, and fresh bread so don't be late."

"Okay, mom!" Snotlout called to her as we darted back out the door and jumped on our dragons.

We flew out to the forest and landed in small clearing with five trees in almost a perfect circle. The trees' bark was marred with deep scars. A sword and mace were stuck into one. The dragons retreated further into the forest as we wrenched the weapons out of the wood. A couple times a week, Snotlout and I would come out here and practice with our weapons or spar. Today we were sparing.

"Ready, babe?" Snotlout rolled shoulders, loosening his muscles.

I grinned back at him and held my sword in front of me. "I was born ready."

Snotlout charged forward with a yell and brought his mace down toward me, but I deflected it with my sword and ducked out of the way. I swung the blade around as if to cut him in half. Snotlout flipped over it and swung the mace at me again. I didn't have time to gracefully dodge the attack and fell onto my back. Snotlout laughed triumphantly until I swept my legs under him and knocked him to the ground beside me. I crawled over on top of him and straddled his waist, a smirk on my face. "I win. So what's my prize?"

Snotlout matched my smirk and rolled over so I was pinned beneath him. "How about this?" He leaned closer and pressed his lips to mine in a soft kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him in closer, one of his hands finding my waist.

Suddenly, he was pulled away from me. When I opened my eyes Hookfang had Snotlout by the back of his shirt.

Snotlout was thrashing around in his dragon's grip, but getting nowhere. "Do you have to ruin everything?!"

I looked up at the sky and sighed when I saw the setting sun, sitting up. "Dinner should be ready by now. We need get back."

Snotlout finally stopped fighting Hookfang and whined "Oh, come on. Can't we skip dinner?"

I giggled and mounted Strike. "No. Your mother would kill us."

"Fine." Hookfang flipped Snotlout over his head and he landed on the dragon's neck.

The two dragons flew up into the air and headed back to the village. When we got there, we dismounted the dragons and fed them their fish dinner. We came inside just as Helga finished setting the table and we sat down across from each other, his parent's sitting at the ends of the table. Dinner was great as always and when we were all finished I helped Helga clear the table and wash the dishes.

"Thanks for dinner, Mrs. Jorgenson. It was great." I smiled at her as I approached the door.

"Oh, it was no problem, Svala. It's always a pleasure to have you over."

Snotlout walked me over to the door and leaned against the doorframe. I smiled at him and pecked him on lips. "See you tomorrow."

He smiled back and leaned in for a longer kiss. "Goodnight."

I walked back to the dragons as he shut the door and mounted Strike, flying back home. We landed outside and went inside, Strike following behind me. With Toothless and Strike as small as they are, they were allowed to sleep in the house. I laid down on my bed, while Strike laid down on his slab of rock, and drifted off to sleep. Life was good.

**~Three Days Later~**

The next two days were pretty uneventful. We practiced riding, sparred, and just hung out. I was awoken to someone shaking my shoulder.

"Svala, wake up."

I growled deep in my throat and opened my eyes to see Hiccup standing over me. "This better be good."

"I have an idea for how to get the dragons under control. We need to gather the others and head to the Arena."

I sighed and sat up in my bed, rubbing my eyes. "Fine. I'll grab Snotlout and the Twins. You go get Astrid and Fishlegs."

"Thanks, Svala." Hiccup went out the door and I heard Toothless following him down the stairs.

"Whatever." I got up and got dressed in my usual outfit, tying my red hair up into a ponytail.

"C'mon, Strike." I grabbed piece of bread for me and a fish for Strike as we went through the kitchen. I tossed Strike the fish and mounted him while he was eating it. Strike took off toward Snotlout's house and I ate the bread on the way there. When I got there, I strolled inside like usual and went up to Snotlout's room. He was already awake and doing pull ups on a pole he had in the doorway of his closest.

"12…" He saw me as I came through the door. "99…100."

He leapt down from the pole and grabbed a towel off his bed, wiping the sweat off his face. "Hey, what's up? You're not usual up this early."

"Hiccup said he wants all of us to meet at the Arena. I came to grab you and the twins."

He groaned. "Oh, great."

I tilted my head to the side curiously. "What? Are they not morning people?"

"It's impossible to get wake them up."

"That's because I haven't tried yet."

I smiled confidently and spun around on my heels, walking back to Strike with Snotlout running after me. We walked to the twins' house since they only lived a few minutes' walk away. Strike and Hookfang walked behind us.

The house looked like any other on the street, only their Hideous Zippleback was sleeping outside. Apparently their dragon wasn't so keen on getting up early either. I turned to Hookfang and Strike, pointing to Barf and Belch.

"You two wake them up."

I walked inside without knocking, but luckily their parents were already gone.

"Where is their room?" I turned to Snotlout only to find him hiding behind the couch and gave him a weird look. "What are you doing?"

"Their room is straight down the hall. You can go, but I am not going anywhere near those two this early in the morning."

I groaned and walked over to the couch. I grabbed Snotlout by his shirt and dragged him down the hall. I kicked the door open and stormed in, my eyes landing on the twins. Each had their own bed on opposite sides of the room. I released Snotlout and walked over to Ruffnut first. I shook her shoulder.

"Ruffnut, wake up. We have a meeting at the arena."

She groaned and I heard Snotlout squeak. I turned my head to give him a look. "What's you pro-"

I screamed as Ruffnut lunged out of the bed and tackled me.

"I'm trying to sleep!" She grabbed my hair, pulling it out of my ponytail and shook me.

I rolled over so I was on top and twisted my fingers into her hair. "I don't care! Wake up!"

We rolled around on the floor screaming, punching, pulling, and kicking. We ran into multiple things and knocked many objects down. Her brother never stirred once throughout this. At one point I had her pinned down and, finally getting tired on this, I brought back my fist and then sent it into her face as hard as I could. She groaned in pain and went slack on the ground. Panting, I got to my feet and stood over her.

"Are you awake now?"

She nodded and held her head. "Yeah. I'm up."

I held out a hand and pulled her to her feet. Ruffnut dragged her feet into the bathroom to get ready. I grabbed my ponytail holder and walked over to Tuffnut as I put my hair back into place. I had had enough of this. When I got over to him I placed my hands on my hips, leaned close to his face, and screamed at the top of my lungs.

"GET UP!"

Tuffnut yelled in fear and fell out of the bed to my feet. He looked up at me, irritated. "What was that-"

"GO GET READY! NOW!"

Tuffnut jumped from the sheer volume of my voice and scrambled off to get dressed.

I crossed my arms over my chest and smiled, pleased with myself. When I turned to Snotlout he was standing in the doorway with his jaw on the floor, dumbstruck. I walked past him, grabbing his hand and pulling him with me as I went. "They should be ready in a few minutes."

As I predicted, the twins were dressed and on their dragon within four minutes. Snotlout and I both climbed onto our dragons and we all headed to the arena. Hiccup was already there with Astrid and Fishlegs, both of whom were early risers. Everyone dismounted and stood in a semicircle around Hiccup.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "You better have a damn good reason for bringing us here. I had a hell of time getting these idiots up." I jerked my thumb over to Ruffnut and Tuffnut.

"Well, as you all know, the dragons have been causing a lot of trouble in the village. I got an idea. Why not use this arena to train the dragons?"

Everyone stared at Hiccup. Ruffnut was the first one to speak up. "That's your plan? Train dragons-"

Tuffnut finished for her. "Here? Where we used to kill them?"

Hiccup grabbed a large basket and carried it over to Toothless. "Right, because we don't do that anymore. That's why it's available."

"Actually, the dragons do seem a_ little_ nervous." Astrid rubbed Stormfly's snout and I noticed all the dragons, except for Toothless and Strike, were tense and on edge.

"That's because they're very sensitive. Meatlug especially. She lost a cousin here." Fishlegs hugged his Gronckle then whispered. "We try not to talk about it."

Astrid walked over to Hiccup. "It's amazing your dad just gave us the arena."

I nodded. "Yeah, he's usually pretty uptight."

Hiccup shifted his gaze away then back Astrid and I immediately knew there was a catch. "Well, it would be if he did, yeah, but he didn't so that's another thing we should try not to talk about."

Ah, the catch.

"Wait. So we're going to behind your father's back?" Astrid asked incredulously, placing her hands on her hips.

I grinned and leaned sideways on Strike with my arms crossed and one leg crossed over the other. "Wow, Hiccup. Welcome to the rebellious side."

Hiccup skirted around Astrid and paced in front of us. "There you go talking about it… uh… alright, everybody here's the thing. The dragons are out of control. We want them to live in our world without destroying it, but they can't without our help. They've been blowing things up in the village. We've got to do something about that."

Tuffnut cut Hiccup off before he could go on. "Got it! Help dragons blow things up. We can totally do that."

Hiccup tried to correct them, but that can be a bit difficult once they get going. "No. I believe I said-"

"Here's how we're going to do it. First, we make them really really angry."

"No problem. We anger everybody."

I walked over and slammed their heads together hard enough to make them drop to the ground. "That's not what he meant you idiots."

"You guys this is serious! Mildew wants all of our dragons caged! And I don't know about you, but that's _not_ okay with me."

Everyone shared a look, finally releasing how dire the situation was. Even Ruffnut and Tuffnut got the gist.

"Your right. She's sorry."

Ruffnut glared at her brother. I shook my head and returned to Strike.

"Okay then. Next problem." Hiccup walked back over the basket and pulled out a loaf of bread. "The dragons are eating everything in sight. Now, when a dragon grabs something it's not supposed to have. You can get them to drop it by giving them a little scratch just below the chin."

Hiccup allowed Toothless to grab the bread and then scratched him under the chin, sending him into a relaxed state.

Snotlout walked over and snatched the bread out of Hiccup's hand. "Maybe that works for you and Toothless, but Hookfang and me… we do things a little different."

Snotlout threw the bread at Hookfang which the large dragon easily caught in his mouth. Snotlout strutted back over to his dragon.

"When I want this big boy to do something I just get right in his face and- DROP THAT RIGHT NOW! YOU HEAR ME!"

Startled, Hookfang lowered his head to the ground then did as Snotlout said and dropped the bread. He then replaced it with Snotlout himself. Mildly pissed off, Hookfang shook him in his mouth.

"See. He dropped it." Snotlout's voice was a muffled from inside the dragon.

I laughed as we all stood around Hookfang, looking up at Snotlout.

"Heh. Should we help him?" Tuffnut laughed.

"Yeah... In a minute." Astrid smirked up Snotlout.

Ruffnut looked at me from the other side of Tuffnut. "He's your boyfriend. You get him down."

"_Fine_." I drawled out and approached Hookfang as the others turned their attention back to Hiccup. "Come here, Hookfang." I spoke to the Monstrous Nightmare in a much softer voice than my arrogant boyfriend.

Hookfang lowered his head to my level so I reached under and stretched his chin. The dragon instantly dropped Snotlout and collapsed on the ground, completely relaxed. Snotlout laid on the ground, covered in dragon saliva. I grinned down at him. "That worked out well."

Snotlout groaned and climbed to his feet. "Bite me."

"I _would_, but the dragon already _did_… as shown by the layer of spit."

My eyebrows knitted together in confusion when he started grinning. I yelped when he suddenly pulled me to him and wrapped me up in a hug, successful coating me in spit. I squirmed around in his grip until he finally let me go.

"Eww!" He broke down laughing as I held my arms out and stared at myself in disgust. Thick drool dripped down my body. I growled at him with narrow eyes and half-heartedly punched him in the shoulder. "You jerk! What the hell?!"

Snotlout quieted his laughing fit and pulled me back to him. He wrapped his arms around me tight enough that I couldn't get free to kick his ass and rested his chin on the top of my head. "Sorry, babe."

I stopped struggling, the angry draining from my body with that one word, and leaned against him. "It's fine. That was actually really funny."

I looked up and met him half way with a kiss... until someone had to ruin the moment.

"Get a room!" Ruffnut yelled at us.

Snotlout smirked at her. "Maybe we will."

I raised an eyebrow and gave him a look. "Or maybe we won't."

Tuffnut laughed. "Ooh… rejected!"

Snotlout pulled me close to his side. "At least I have a girl to reject me. All you have is your sister."

"No! I have… uh… Astrid!" Tuffnut tried to put his arm around Astrid's waist, but she grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm around his back.

"No, you don't."

She released him and crossed her arms. Tuffnut scrambled off to the safety of his sister.

"Uh, guys? Can we get back to business?"

Everyone suddenly remembered Hiccup and turned back to him. Hiccup reached into the basket and pulled out more bread. "Alright. We got a lot of training to do, but together we can keep these dragons under control."

We each grabbed a loaf of bread and started practicing with our dragons. Luckily, Snotlout tried Hiccup's approach and Hookfang didn't use him as a chew toy again. After we all decided we had gotten the technique down, we returned to the village square. Surprisingly, everything was quiet and there was no one in sight.

Fishlegs voiced everyone's thought. "Huh, no dragons."

"That was easy." Ruffnut shrugged.

"Lunch?" Snotlout was always thinking about food.

I nodded, looking around the empty bazaar. "Yeah, we worked hard today." Then again, so was I.

"That's weird. If the dragons aren't here, where are they?"

Suddenly, a shrill scream rose up from another part of the village. It was followed by a large explosion.

"Something tells me, that way."

We all looked at Astrid then took off running toward the food storage. When we got there, the place had been ravaged and many dragons were still there including….

"Stormfly?"

"Hookfang?"

Astrid and Snotlout each called out to their dragons in surprise when they saw them chowing down on fish.

Hiccup ran up to the storage building, but the rest of us hung back. Stoick soon appeared out of the wreckage.

"They've eaten everything. We've got nothing left for the Freeze."

Old, cranky Mildew hobbled up to them, looking smug. "I warned you Stoick, but did you listen to me? No! You put a bunch of teenagers in charge!"

Mildew gave us a nasty look, which we all gladly returned tenfold. "Caging is too good for those beasts!"

"Dad, I swear I can fix this. We-we were just starting to-"

"Enough Hiccup! How can I trust you to control _all_ the dragons when you couldn't even control your own?"

Stoick gestured to Toothless who was helping himself to the fish. Strike was next to him. Stoick ordered the dragons to be caged for tonight and then Hiccup was to send then away in the morning. Despondent and heartbroken, we dragged our feet the Dining Hall and quietly huddled at our own table in the empty room.

"I can't believe we have to send them away." Even though his dragon didn't listen to him half the time, Snotlout was just as upset as any of us.

"It's going to be weird. I got used to Stormfly's face being the first thing I see every morning." Astrid stirred her soup absentmindedly.

I sat between Snotlout and Fishlegs with my arms on the table and my chin on my arms. I couldn't eat. I was sick to my stomach. "I've been through so much with Strike and now I have to make him leave."

"Every night before I went to sleep Meatlug would lick my feet. Who's going to do that now?!" Fishlegs threw his hands up in despair and then collapsed over the table.

"I volunteer Tuffnut!" Ruffnut nudged her brother, trying to lighten the mood.

"Whatever. What time should I be there?" It didn't work. Tuffnut couldn't have care less about anything. He was way too depressed.

"C'mon guys. Let's get this over with." Astrid stood up and we all followed suit.

"This is the worst day of my life! We're never going to see our dragons again!" Fishlegs cried. No, seriously, he actually cried a little.

I stopped at the door when I noticed Hiccup wasn't coming with us and told the others to go on without me. I returned to where Hiccup was standing by the fire. "I'm sorry you have to send Toothless away."

"We can't let that happen. Toothless is the best friend I ever had." Toothless bent down to pet Toothless.

If I wasn't so sad, I probably would've been offended.

"Oh, Toothless! I'm going to miss you so much!" Mildew came over with bowl soup and salt to pour over our wounds.

Toothless growled at him and Hiccup stood up to Mildew. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared daggers at him.

"You know what your mistake was? Thinkin' dragons could be trained. A dragon's gonna do what a dragon's gonna do. It's their nature and nature always wins."

Mildew laughed and walked away.

I bared my teeth and growled. "That's it! Let's see him talk after I ripe his tongue out." I clenched my fists and stalked toward the old man, but Hiccup held me back.

"No. Violence isn't the answer."

I growled, but backed off nonetheless. We heard Mildew laugh as he left and Hiccup expression turned crossed.

"We'll call that plan B." He corrected himself.

A couple men opened the door which allowed a cold gust of wind to blow in and put out the fire. Toothless quickly lit it back up.

"Oh, thank you Toothless." A random woman thanked the dragon.

"You know what? Mildew's absolutely right!"

I scrunched up my nose in distain. "He is?"

"Yes! C'mon guys!" Hiccup bolted out the doors.

Toothless and I looked at each other than took off after him. For a guy with one leg he could run pretty damn fast. Strike came flying up soon after we left. I looked up at him as he flew above me then at Hiccup. "Where are we going?!"

"To the Arena!"

"You know we have dragons that can fly right?!"

Hiccup slowed to a stop as he thought about this. "Oh, yeah."

I rolled my eyes. I thought he was supposed to be the smart one? We mounted out dragons and then took off toward the Arena. When we got there, they were closing the gate to lock the dragons in. Hiccup and I yelled at them to stop. We quickly landed and jumped off the dragons. I grabbed onto the gate lever and pulled it back up as Hiccup stood between the group and the Arena.

"We are not locking them up."

"What happened? Did you change your father's mind?" Astrid asked excitedly, approaching Hiccup. "… or are we going behind his back again?" Astrid became skeptical, backing away from him.

I went down into the Arena and got the dragons, bringing them back up.

"Uh, one of those. Look. The dragons are going to do what they're going to do. It's their nature. We just need to learn how to use it!"

From their expressions, I'd say the others liked the idea. I walked with Hookfang over Snotlout and looked at everyone. "What do we have to lose?"

The next morning, everyone got up early without any fuss and we all met at the Arena. Everyone was mounted on their dragons and looking at Hiccup. Hiccup looked each of us in the eye. "Alright, guys. This is our last shot. We need to make it count."

We all yelled out enthusiastically and took to the skies. The first thing we did was fly out to where Mulch and Bucket were trying to catch some fish.

"Snotlout! Scare us up some dinner!" Hiccup directed Snotlout then flew back to the rest of us to give the other orders.

We headed over to cranky Mildew's farm and helped him plant all his cabbage. I had Strike gather up a little rain storm, with a touch of lightening of course, to water the plants after the dragons got done fertilizing it. We then rounded up the yaks and boars and everyone met up at the barn.

"That was awesome!"

I nodded in agreement with Fishlegs and leaned down to hug Strike. "Totally!"

"How did you know that was going to work?!"

"Cause they're dragons and they're going to do what dragons do. We just have to work with them and not against them. You know who we should actually be thanking-"

"There they are, Stoick! Those dragons don't look like they're in cages to me."

I walked up and stood beside Hiccup with my arms crossed over my chest defiantly. "Plan B?"

Hiccup glanced at me then at Mildew. "Not just yet."

"No. This is not what I asked for. Kids. I want you to all go down to the Arena and cage those dragons."

I and Hiccup looked at each other is shock, Hiccup stepping forward. "But Dad-"

"NOW." Stoick told us sternly. His tone left no room for conversation.

We all looked at each other then slumped our shoulders and got on out dragons, returning to the Arena. We did was Stoick said and locked them up in a cage. I reached my hand through the bars and placed it on Strike's snout. "You won't be here long. I promise."

Stoick and Gobber approached the Arena, a small group of villagers standing outside watching. The seven of us huddled together, afraid of what he was going to do. I gripped Snotlout's hand tightly.

"Oh, no. What's Stoick going to do to us?" Fishlegs squeaked from behind the rest of us.

"I'm too pretty for jail."

"Where'd you here that?"

Even in the face of danger, those two were bickering.

We shut up turned our attention to Stoick when he began speaking. "You all disobeyed my orders and there _will_ be consequences."

"I told you we were going to get in trouble. Uh, you never listen to me."

Astrid bitched Hiccup out until he stepped forward to face his father. "Dad, if anyone is going to get in trouble it should be me."

"Nope. You all had a hand in this. You took over this place without asking. You released the dragons against my wishes. Things are going to change around here. That's why-"

"You're getting a Dragon Training Academy." Gobber jumped in front of Stoick and cut him off.

"Gobber! I wanted to tell them!"

"I'm sorry. Your right. Go ahead."

"Well, you took most of it!"

"You can tell them the part about how proud you are of them."

"Gobber!" Stoick sighed and turned back to us. "Hiccup… well… what he said. You've all made me proud."

We all grinned at each other, relieved and excited. Stoick walked over the door lever.

"This dragon training academy is for you." He pulled down the lever, thus releasing all of our dragons.

I screamed in excitement and ran over to Strike. He met me half way and I threw my arms around his neck. "I'm so sorry I put you in cage!"

"Now all you have to do is train them."

"Not a problem, dad. After all, I've got him."

Astrid coughed and Hiccup remembered us. "And them too."

I grinned and looked over at all my friends. I did a double take. Yep. Hookfang had Snotlout by the back of his shirt.

I laughed, looking over at Strike. "I better go do that chin scratch."

He grumbled at me and we went over to get Hookfang to drop my boyfriend.

Yep.

Life was good.

My only regret was that I never got to rip Mildew's tongue out.


	2. Viking for Hire

Viking for Hire

The group was gathered in the Dragon Academy today. There were two rows of three barrels with a stone drawing board at the end of the aisle they made. Hiccup was standing by the board. Astrid, Fishlegs, and I were lined up at one of the rows of barrels. Snotlout and the twins were lined up at the other one. We stood facing each other with our dragons sleeping behind us.

"Every dragon has his own unique abilities that give it its own special place in the world. Which dragon makes the best welding torch?"

"Oh! Deadly Nadder!" Astrid was leaning over her barrel in excitement.

I was leaning on mine in boredom. We had been playing this trivia game for over an hour.

"Its magnesium flame burns with the heat of the Sun!" Fishlegs followed up.

"Correct! Point to team Astrid."

I swirled my finger in circle. "Woo. Go team." My voice was completely drained of all emotion.

"The score is now a hundred to ten."

Astrid laughed at the other team. "And you started with ten."

Tuffnut pointed a finger at them threateningly. "Oh, yeah? Well the game's not over... Wait. What team am I on?"

"Next question. What is the shot limit of a Hideous Zippleback? Team Snotlout."

I actually raised my head from the barrel for this. It was probably going to be amusing.

"I don't think they can count that high." Astrid fake whispered to us

I giggled into my arm. That was probably true.

"Oh, really? Let's find out. Barf! Belch!"

My eyes widened when I realized what Ruffnut was planning to do. I quickly ducked down behind the barrels with Astrid and Fishlegs. The dragon shot at us six times.

"Looks like it's about three." Tuffnut then held up _two_ fingers.

"Told you we could count that high." Ruffnut taunted them.

I looked at Astrid and Fishlegs, pointing to the others. "Should we be worried about them?"

"It's six. You were half right. Five points."

I raised my hand. "Actually, they were half right for the verbal answer and one third right for the signed answer."

"Yes! We're up to thirty!" Ruffnut yelled and high-fived her teammates.

"Okay. I really think we should be worried about them." I stated as me and my team came out from behind the barrels. I was right. That was amusing.

"Alright. It's our turn. What happens when you shot fire at the owner of a Deadly Nadder?" Astrid smirked at them and whistled sharply for Stormfly. Ohh, things were getting interesting. Stormfly shoot her tail spikes at them, pinning the three to the wall.

I turned on Astrid. "Hey! Be careful! Don't put a hole in my boyfriend!"

"No fair! She didn't give us time to answer." Tuffnut yelled out indignantly.

Before Astrid could answer we both looked back at the trio just in time to see Snotlout jump down. He looked a bit angry as he marched toward us. "I've got a question. What happens when I sic Hookfang on you?"

I smirked and placed one hand on my hip, gesturing to Strike with the other. "You get electrocuted." The Skrill was quick to come to my side. Lightening jumped across his body. We were both eager for a fight.

"Okay, guys! That's enough training! So we did some really good work here today." Hiccup quickly left what was soon to be a war zone as Snotlout mounted Hookfang.

"Prepare to face the Monstrous Nightmare!" Snotlout tried to wake Hookfang up only to startle him. The large dragon set itself on fire and with it, Snotlout. Snotlout yelled in pain and leapt off the flaming dragon. "That's the third time this week!" He ran over and jumped into a trough of water, sighing. "Sweet relief."

I laughed. "You might want to stop startling a dragon whose defense mechanism is setting itself on fire!"

Deeming it safe to come in again, Hiccup went over to Snotlout with me and Astrid following. "Hookfang never flames up when you're riding him. Is he okay?"

"Maybe he just realized who his owner is?" Astrid grinned, shrugging.

Normally I would laugh, but now that I thought about it. Hookfang was being more aggressive than usual. He may not listen to Snotlout very well, but I spent enough time with them to know that they cared about each other and were actually very close.

"There's room in here for two." Snotlout leaned over toward Astrid and held up two fingers.

Astrid's face turned furious and she shoved him down into the water. Okay that I had to laugh at. Yes, Snotlout still flirted with Astrid, or whatever that was supposed to be, but I didn't think much of it. I knew it didn't mean anything and I was the one he cared about. It was just Snotlout being Snotlout. It wasn't like he was flirt with a ton of girls or anything. He'd been flirting with Astrid practically since they were in diapers. It was more out of habit than anything else.

I laughed for bit until I felt something wrap around my wrist and I was pulled backwards. I gasped loudly when cold water hit me. Snotlout had pulled me into the trough. I was sprawled out the long way like how you would sit in a bathtub with my legs over Snotlout's lap and the edge of the trough. Snotlout broke out into laughs and I couldn't help myself from doing the same. After a few minutes of laughing we climbed out of the trough, which, by the way, is really hard when someone keeps pulling you back in. The others waited patiently for us to get out and the seven us, plus our dragons, walked back to the village. We split up and went our separate ways, I with Hiccup. A crowd was gathered in the village square. Hiccup and I shoved our way to the front to see Gobber trying to sell his dragon killing weapons. We shared a guilty look.

I was standing on Hiccups left when someone came up on his right and gasped dramatically. "Well this is a dark day, a great dragon slayer peddling his weapons as kitchen utensils. Tch, tch, tch."

I glared at Mildew out of the corner of my eyes and leaned closer to Hiccup. "Plan B is still an option."

Hiccup glanced from me to Mildew then shook his head. "No. You can't ripe his tongue out."

Gobber was trying to sell Big Bertha when the catapult went off and destroyed someone's house. The crowd had seen enough and started dispersing.

"Tch, tch, tch." Mildew looked pointedly at Hiccup.

Hiccup glared at him and leaned closer to me. "Or at least not yet."

"Hey! Wait! There's more! Come back! You haven't seen everything yet! I haven't cleared out my dungeon yet." Gobber yelled out desperately to the people, but they were already gone.

"Oh, it's hard to watch. Especially for you two, ay Hiccup? Svala? The feelings of guilt must be tearing at your insides. I mean you guys put him out of business with your little peace pact with the dragons. You ruined his life. Bravo!" Mildew finally left us in peace… or pieces. It felt a little more like pieces.

I clenched my fists tightly at my sides, furious at Mildew. He was right though. I took one more look at Gobber and then headed back to the house. Hiccup followed alongside me. We went back up to the house and sat with our feet hanging off the balcony over the kitchen. Toothless was curled around us with Strike lying beside me. All was silent for a while as we wallowed in guilt.

Hiccup sighed, looking at his prosthetic leg then at Toothless. "You know Gobber made this for me. He taught me everything I needed to know to make your tail."

I rested my hand on Strike's head. "And me to make the new one since yours kind of got burned to a crisp."

Hiccup turned to me with that determined look in his eye. "We've got to find some way to help him."

I opened my mouth to ask how when Hiccup father came through the door and sat down in his chair with a tired groan. Hiccup stood up and walked down the stairs, but I remained where I was.

"Tough day of chiefing, dad?" Hiccup got his dad a mug of mead

"I was all over the island. I married the Spencing girl to the Garb boy at dawn then went down to the fields where some kids were tipping over yaks then back up to the newlyweds to settle at domestic dispute. I guess that honeymoon is over."

Hiccup gave the drink to him when he was done venting then went over to put more wood on the fire.

"Sometimes I wish there were two of me."

Hiccup dropped the log in his hands and spun around. Our gazes locked and I knew we were thinking the same thing.

"Dad, there are two of you!"

"Is that another crack about my weight?!" Stoick slammed his mug down.

I laughed and swung down from balcony, landing effortlessly on my feet.

"No! I mean Gobber came be the other you!" Hiccup tried to explain to his dad.

"You two are together a lot. He must have picked up something." I joined them and stood by Hiccup.

"Gobber? Oh, he's way to busy making all those dragon killing- Uh, well, he used to be… until you… which is great! Except for Gobber."

"Exactly my point."

"You know that's actually not such a bad idea. I could use a right hand." Stoick put his helmet back on and headed to his room.

"Which works out great, 'cause that's kind of the only one he has."

I smiled. "This is perfect! Gobber gets a job and you dad gets less things to stress about!"

Hiccup nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I got a good feeling about this."

We went off to bed with our dragons then woke up in the morning and had breakfast. I sat at the table while Hiccup finished up his oatmeal and thought about what to do today. I did the jump people do when a great idea suddenly hits them and looked at him with a grin. "Do you want to race Toothless and Strike around the island today?"

Hiccup smiled back. "Yeah. It's nice to race with someone who can actually challenge Toothless' speed." Hiccup quickly downed the rest of his breakfast. We went tearing out of the house and saddled up Toothless and Strike. Luckily, they were already done with their breakfast so we were able to leave immediately. The dragons flew up and out to the coast. We landed on a rocky perch to use as the starting line.

"Okay. Around Raven's Point then back to the village along the coast? " Once I nodded in confirmation Hiccup started the count down. "Ready."

I grinned and leaned down close to the saddle. "Set."

We yelled out at the same time. "GO!"

Toothless and Strike took off full speed. I started off in front and blocked Hiccup whenever he tried to take the lead. I looked back to smirk arrogantly at them only to find the pair gone. "Huh?" I looked around for them, but didn't see them anywhere. That's when I heard the sound Toothless makes when he's charging up to fire. My head jerked up just in time to see Toothless shoot a plasma blast at us from high above. Strike and I both screamed and Strike broke sharply to the side. The shot went past us and exploded below. We swerved up to avoid the after wave. When we straightened out and got under control, Toothless and Hiccup were in front.

Hiccup looked back at me with a smug grin and waved. I smirk at him with narrowed eyes. "So that's how you wanna play huh? Well, we can fight dirty too… Okay Strike, get 'em"

Strike made a shrill noise and then shot a lightning bolt at them. It struck just beside Toothless, make him shift sideways. Just then, lightning bolts rained down on them. They struck all around Toothless, making him have to break and swerve out of their way, slowing him down. For the finale, a lightning bolt struck in front of him. Toothless came to a dead stop and avoid hitting it and we went zipping past them.

This went on for the rest of the race. Toothless and Strike shot at each and we switched leads multiple times. By the time we reach the rock pillars out on the coast we were head and head. We weaved through the rocks as fast as we could, both of us almost crashed a few times. It was hard to tell who was in front when you weren't going in a straight line and we lost sight of each other a few times. I couldn't see Hiccup anymore and suddenly broke out of the outcrop. Hiccup came out a few seconds after.

I grinned when I looked and saw that we were too far ahead for Toothless to catch up. Or at least not without playing dirty. I felt heat on my butt and the next thing I knew, I was falling toward the water. Toothless had blasted me. Not hard enough to hurt me, but hard enough to knock me off my dragon. I screamed and flailed around until Strike caught me by the back of my shirt. He flipped me up and onto his back. When I looked forward, Hiccup and Toothless were far in front of us. They swopped down into the Academy and out of sight. Strike and I entered the arena and landed a minute after them. I jumped off of Strike and marched over the Hiccup who was standing next to Toothless.

"That was a dirty trick!" I pointed my finger at him threateningly.

Hiccup smiled and shrugged. "You would've done the same."

"Yeah, but you're Hiccup! Hiccup doesn't pull crap like that!"

"Maybe you're rubbing off on me."

I growled and marched back over to Strike. I stopped when Hiccup started laughing. I turned to glare at him and put my hand on my hip. "What?" I bit at him sharply.

Hiccup put his hand over his mouth to quiet his laughter. "Your skirt."

My hands went to the back of my skirt and I found that it had been burned away from the blast. Thankfully, my pants were still intact. "Hiccup!"

Hiccup held up his hands in surrender. "It was Toothless' idea!"

I glared at the black dragon who just shrugged at me. I groaned. "Whatever." I mounted Strike, Hiccup doing the same, and we flew back to the house. When we landed, I went up to my room to put on a different skirt. I also changed pants after I saw that they were scorched. "Hiccup owes me a new pair of pants and skirt." I grumbled to myself as I headed back downstairs.

When I descended to the first story of the house I saw Hiccup with his father who was holding to blocks of ice up to his head.

"You know, dad. I think your being a wee bit rough on Gobber. It was his first day. Tomorrow will be way better."

I raised an eyebrow. This should be good. "What happened?"

Stoick put down the blocks on ice and head a mug of mead up to it instead. "Gobber sunk a ship."

"Wow." I walked over to where they were.

"Oh, and tomorrow will be better for me, because it won't involve Gobber."

"What do you mean?" Hiccup looked genuinely confused.

Stoick slammed his mug down. "I'm trying to fit a square peg in a round hole and it named a baby girl Magnus. I'm not saying she didn't look like a Magnus, but try telling that to her parents."

"I can't believe you let him go!" Hiccup sighed. "Well, we've got to help him!"

"If by 'we' you mean you and Svala. I don't have to do anything, but you two on the other hand are going to be very busy finding a job for Gobber."

Our shoulders slumped as Hiccup and I shared a look. Great. Stoick went to bed and Hiccup and I went up to his room to discuss job ideas. Hiccup sat on his bed while I sat cross legged on the floor. "So, do have any ideas."

"Hmm." Hiccup put his chin on his fists and thought for a moment. "Hey! What if he worked at the Academy?"

I had a flashback of the first day of dragon killing training and shook my head. "Uh, that's a bad idea. Bring in the guy that taught us how to kill dragons?"

Hiccup sighed. "Do you have a better idea?"

I opened my mouth then closed it again. "Um, no."

He clapped his hand together. "Okay, then. Dragon Training it is."

**~ THE NEXT DAY ~**

"You're bringing Gobber… here?"

Everyone was gathered in the Dragon Academy. Hiccup and I had just told the others about his idea. Judging from the looks we got and what Fishlegs had just said, I'd say they didn't like it.

"He's going to be… great. Nobody knows dragons like old Gobber. He's spent a lifetime… you know… studying them. If we could tap into that we'll all be better dragon trainers."

Hiccup was just starting win them over when Gobber burst into the arena with a wagon full of weapons.

"I'm back! Did you miss me?"

All the dragons jumped in fear.

"First of all, uh, welcome. And second, uh, tiny question. Why, uh, did you bring your… you know…"

"Killing things?" Gobber rummaged around in the wagon and pulled out some giant mutated weapon. "I thought we could train them by threatening to kill them. That's how my daddy taught me to swim."

The dragons flinched back and hide behind their owners. Strike included. I wrapped my arms around his neck. "It's okay. He's not going to hurt you."

Gobber suddenly pulled out a huge chain mace. "School's in session!"

The dragon bolted out of the arena and flew off, though I was able to keep Strike from flying off. Everyone stared at the dragons as they disappeared from sight.

"Eh, I didn't like school either."

The group glared daggers at the Gobber.

"Well, see you guys tomorrow!" Gobber yelled out cheerfully as he wheeled the cart out of the arena and went back to the forge.

Astrid sighed in exasperation. "Let's go get our dragons."

I looked to where the dragons had disappeared into the sky and laughed. "Good luck with that." But when I turned around to Strike, Snotlout was sitting on my dragon.

I raised my eyebrow, crossing my arms over my chest. "What do you think you're doing with my dragon?"

"You have to help me find Hookfang." Snotlout sat there stubbornly with his arms crossed.

"Why? It was Hiccup's idea to bring Gobber here." I walked over and mounted Strike nonetheless.

Once I was situated, Snotlout wrapped his arms around my waist. "Your my girlfriend. It's like in the rulebook or something."

I grinned snarkily. "There's a Dating Rulebook that says a girlfriend has to help her boyfriend find his lost dragon?"

"Yes."

I laughed as Strike flew out of the Academy and headed out toward where Hookfang went. We ended up out along a place where the island dropped straight off into the ocean. I was looking at the forest's edge when Snotlout pointed to a lower spot in front of us. "There!"

I followed his finger and saw Hookfang crawling on the edge of the cliff. The dragon was acting weird, growling and shaking his head. Strike flew down closer to Hookfang. "Hookfang, what are you doing? …Snotlout, what are you doing?!"

Snotlout jumped off of Strike and dove to the side of the cliff. He slipped down as he struggled to find somewhere to hold on. Pointed rocks rose up from the ocean under him.

"Snotlout!" I watched worriedly as he slid further down.

His foot hit a small piece of rock jutting out from the cliff, bringing him to a stop. "I'm okay, Svala!" Snotlout took a second to gather himself then began to climb up toward his dragon. During this, Hookfang continued to shake his head and growl, not seeming to notice his rider was in trouble. What was up with that dragon?

I had Strike hover down close to Snotlout in case he fell. Fortunately, he didn't and Snotlout was able to reach Hookfang and climb onto him. Hookfang settled down after he did and pushed away from the cliff. We started flying back to the village. "How do you think the others are doing with their dragons?"

Snotlout shrugged. "You wanna find out?"

"Sure." We turned the dragons to head to the other side of the island since we had already been all over this side.

When we got out to the ocean a little ways from the village we saw Barf and Belch standing on a rock pillar. It was about a fourth of a mile from land. I looked over at Snotlout confusedly when he started laughing then down below at the water. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were on a section of wood, paddling toward their dragon. I flew down toward them, Snotlout following me. "Need some help?"

The twins looked up at us. "We don't have any more paddles."

I shared a look with Snotlout. "You get Tuffnut. I'll get Ruffnut."

Strike lowered over the two and grabbed Ruffnut by the shoulders with his hind feet. I flew up toward the Hideous Zippleback and Hookfang grabbed Tuffnut by the back of his shirt. We dropped the two onto the pillar then flew off to find the others.

We spotted what looked like a Deadly Nadder flying over Raven's Point and set out to that area. Stormfly was landed on Raven's Point. Astrid was scaling the side of the mountain. She was already two thirds of the way up. I flew Strike in closer. "Need a lift?"

She paused to look at me then up at where Stormfly was. "No. I can do it."

I shrugged. "Suit yourself." I turned around in my saddle to Snotlout. "Let's find Fishlegs."

He groaned and whined to me. "Why? We've already helped out everyone else."

"Because we don't have anything better to do."

He thought about this. "Yeah, okay."

We flew out to the only place we hadn't been to yet. The village. We looked around the village from the sky, but couldn't find him there. The only other places he could have gone were the beach and docks. Fishlegs was on the docks preparing a small boat. We landed on the docks. "Fishlegs, what are doing?"

He paused and looked up, noticing us for the first time. "When Gobber scared the dragons off, Meatlug went to an island we go to spent time at."

I jerked my thumb over to my boyfriend on his large dragon. "Snotlout can give you lift."

I got a surprised look from him. "What?! "

"Thanks Snotlout!" Fishlegs yelled excitedly as he abandoned the boat and jumped onto Hookfang behind Snotlout.

"Hey!" Snotlout jumped when the larger boy got onto his dragon. Snotlout spun back around to glare at me.

I laughed and shot past them into the sky. Snotlout flew after me and took the lead since Fishlegs was the only who knew where the island was. He directed us for an half an hour before we found the small island. We approached a small beach with cliffs rising up behind it to cut the section of land off from the rest of the island. A Gronckle was sleeping on the sand, but woke up when we landed.

"Meatlug!" Fishlegs yelled as he jumped off of Hookfang and tackle-hugged his dragon.

I smiled at the pair then turned to Snotlout. "I think we've helped enough people for the rest of the season."

Snotlout sighed in relief. "Thank Thor. Helping people is exhausting."

I nodded. "Agreed."

We waited for Fishlegs and Meatlug to finish their little reunion then the three of us flew back to Berk. We got back at sunset and Fishlegs went back to his house while Snotlout flew home with me. We landed outside the door. I dismounted Strike and went over to Snotlout to kiss him goodbye. After I was safely inside I heard Hookfang fly away. Stoick was already in bed and Hiccup was nowhere to be seen so I heated up some stew and ate outside with Strike. The dragons were pretty messy eaters so they had to eat outside. I was inside, washing the dishes when Hiccup and Toothless finally came home.

I walked back over to the still heated stew and scooped some into a bowl. "Where were you guys?"

Hiccup sat down at the table as I placed it in front of him. "I could ask you the same thing."

I sat down across from him. "After we found Hookfang, Snotlout and I helped the others find their dragons."

Hiccup looked at me in disbelief. "You and Snotlout… helped people?"

I scoffed in mock insult. "We can be nice on occasion."

Hiccup shoveled down his dinner. "You? Sure. Snotlout? Not so much."

I shrugged. "So what were you doing?"

Hiccup brightened at this. "I found a new job for Gobber."

I perked up. "Really? What?"

"Making saddles for the dragons. Astrid and the twins were complaining about being sore after riding their dragons earlier today."

I grinned. "That's a great idea! There's no way he could screw that up!"

Boy was I wrong.

The next everyone met at the Academy. Of course, when the dragons saw Gobber they refused to enter the arena and we spent a while coaxing them in. Gobber and Hiccup were standing next to a giant sheet with something under it. The rest of us stood around them in a semi-circle.

"Alright, this is an exciting day for all of us. Gobber, has been working hard to-"

Gobber pushed Hiccup out of the way. "I think they might want to hear from the artist himself. I've made a lot of saddles in my day… horse, donkey, and now dragon. But these saddles are special, their like my children. If you strap your child to a flaming reptile and roll it. So without further ado…"

The others were eager and giddy as Gobber wrenched the cloth off of the saddles. Everyone gasped in excitement.

"Uh, wow…. Gobber, this is certainly _not_ what I imagined." Hiccup did not look or sound pleased with the designs, but Gobber didn't notice.

The twins, Snotlout, and I investigated the saddles. They were… interesting. Thank Thor I already had one.

"How could it be? I'm Gobber. Nobody knows what it's like to live in here." He tapped on his head with his sledgehammer hand.

"And nobody wants to." I mumbled to Snotlout, who laughed quietly.

"Is-is that…?"

"Yep. Flame thrower." Gobber turned the contraption on and it spit flames. A flame thrower on a saddle? For dragons?

"Didn't see that one coming did ya?"

"Uh… no, no. Not for dragons. They come with one build in actually."

"I know, but can you ever really have too much fire power?"

We all looked over to see that Ruffnut and Tuffnut had already saddled up Barf and Belch in two saddles with catapults on them. The twins loaded the weapons and tried to fire them, but they hit their dragon in the back of their heads and knocked them silly.

"Uh, catapults? For the twins? Not such a good idea."

Gobber shrugged in agreement. Those two shouldn't be allowed near _any_ dangerous object.

Fishlegs put a saddle with four maces strapped onto it on Meatlug. He got on and she tried to fly, but only made it a few feet off the ground. "C'mon girl! You can do it! Think light." The poor Gronckle tried as hard as she could and suddenly crapped out, falling to the ground.

"C'mon! You can't tell me my saddle is heavier than Fishlegs!"

I laughed quietly into my hand, leaning on Strike.

"My mom says I'm just husky."

Snotlout grabbed the heavy saddle with the flame thrower on it and threw it onto Hookfang. The dragon immediately reared up and roared, spewing flames as it threw the saddle off. Hookfang lowered his head down to Snotlout.

"C'mon Hookfang. What's wrong with you?" Snotlout groaned and tried to put his hand on the Monstrous Nightmare's snout, but he pulled back and turned away from Snotlout.

"That's it. Someone's trading with me."

I shared a confused and concerned look with Strike. What was up with Hookfang?

Tuffnut laughed from his still dazed dragon. "Yeah, sure. I'll trade my perfect dragon for an angry oven."

I scoffed. "He's only perfect, because you hit him in the heads with a boulder."

"Hey! That was totally on accident!"

At some point Astrid had tried a saddle on and drew everyone's attention when she came flying back. "This saddle's actually pretty good."

"Wait till you try the horn."

Astrid blew into the horn which spooked Stormfly and caused her to throw her tail spikes… right at Snotlout. For the second time this week, Snotlout was pinned to the wall by Stormfly's spikes.

"Really? Again?" Snotlout asked in exasperation.

I giggled and walked over to help pull him down. I wrapped my arms around his waist and leaned into his chest. Snotlout smiled and hugged me, resting his chin on my head. I really loved having a boyfriend.

The next thing I knew Gobber was shouting goodbye and leaving with the dysfunctional saddles. Hiccup sighed was he was out of sight and turned to us. "Uh, I think that's enough for today. You guys can all go home, I'm going to stay and clean up."

Everyone said their goodbyes to Hiccup and left. I started walking out with Snotlout, his arm around my shoulders.

"Svala, you have to stay and help me."

I stopped and turned to him with a groan, whining. "Why? I hate cleaning."

Hiccup put his fish on his hips. "Because you also run this Academy so you need to help keep it in good shape."

I slumped my shoulders. "Fine." I turned to Snotlout and pressed my lips to his in a goodbye kiss. "You go own ahead. I'll see you tomorrow."

Snotlout tilted his head to deepen the kiss then reluctantly pulled away. "Alright. Goodnight, babe."

I smiled up at him. "Goodnight."

Snotlout left the arena and I walked back over to Hiccup and grabbed a broom out of his hand. We spent hours cleaning.

Hiccup's father came in at sunset. "My Odin. This place looked better when we were killing dragons here."

Hiccup paused in his sweeping. "Yeah, we sort of got Gobbered."

"Well, you know Gobber. He means well. He just doesn't always do well. So, what are you two going to do about him?"

I stopped at this and turned to them, placing my hand on my hip. "Yeah, we don't need a repeat of today."

"We'll clean up his messes and redo his work."

"Look, Gobber's like family."

Hiccup threw the broom down and spun around to face his father. "Yeah, I know. That's why I can't say anything to him."

I nodded in agreement and walked over to them. "Gobber's really sensitive. We can't just come out and say 'You're doing horrible at every job we give you'."

Stoick placed his hands on our shoulders. "I know. That's why you have to. It's not fair to either of you and it's not fair to Gobber."

"Why do we have to say something to him?! You didn't!" Hiccup pulled away from his father, becoming very upset. "You just past him off to us!" Hiccup turned away in anger. I could tell he was just upset that he was going to have to talk to Gobber. It was going to devastate him.

I pointed back toward the village. "I could go get Snotlout."

They ignored me. "That's what the chief does. Delegates. Look, I gave you and Svala this Academy, because it's the best thing for Berk. Now the both of you have to do what's best for the Academy and I'm sorry son, but what's best is very rarely what's easy." Stoick put his hand back on Hiccup's shoulder and led us off toward the forge.

Stoick left us a little ways from the forge and we walked the rest of the way. When we got there it was dark and Gobber was in there building something.

"Hey you never know. Maybe Gobber finally looked at my plans and is actually making the saddles better."

Just then, an explosion went off in the forge and smoke pooled out.

"Or not."

I sighed. "Let's get this over with."

We went up the forge and saw Gobber bent over something. Hiccup tried to get his attention. "Gobber?"

The large Viking spun around and pointed a cross bow at us. Our hands flew up in surrender and Hiccup yelled. "Don't shoot!"

"I would never shoot you guys, unless I absolutely had to." Gobber voice got a bit dangerous sounding toward the end.

Um, that was slightly concerning.

Hiccup laughed nervously. "Yeah, still, if you could please put the crossbow down. I'd know I'd feel better and Svala would probably feel better too."

"You know, about the weapons. Maybe the catapults were a bit much for some of the dragons yesterday so I've gone a different way. I've gotten rid of the two big ones."

Hiccup and I looked at each other excitedly then back at the big Viking. "Gobber, that's great!"

"And replaced them with six little ones!"

Our jaws and my shoulder dropped. Gobber held up a spoon sized catapult for us to see.

"Yeah, um… Gobber we need to talk." I tried to quietly leave the room while Hiccup talked, but he grabbed the back of shirt and pulled me back. "Uh, I think it might be time for you to take a little break."

"I case you hadn't noticed, the only time a Viking takes a break is to die." Gobber turned to his workbench and started working.

"Maybe a break is the wrong word. What I mean is, I'm not sure things are working out."

Gobber paused and we thought he had gotten the message, but then continued working.

"Well get back to me when you're sure."

Hiccup gave me an exasperated look. I rolled my eyes and walked closer to Gobber. "We're sure Gobber. This might not be the best job for you."

Hiccup continued. "I'm going to have to take you off the saddle project."

This stopped Gobber dead in his tracks and he laid down his tools. "Are you getting rid of me, Hiccup? Now I see why you had me put down the crossbow." Oh, no. Not the sad voice!

Hiccup stumbled over his words, trying not to upset Gobber. "It's just the saddles. We'll find something else you."

"I don't need your pity. I've lost an arm and a leg. I think I'll survive losing a job." Gobber turned his back to us and continued working.

"I'm really sorry, Gobber." Hiccup laid his hand on Gobber comfortingly, but was ignored by the large Viking.

In turn, I laid my hand on Hiccup's shoulder and met his eye. He got the message and we quietly left the forge. We both heaved heavy sighs once we were outside and continued home with our dragons.

"Well that was awful."

"We should have just gotten Snotlout."

"Yeah, I don't know what could be worse than that."

Just then I heard screaming and flames rose out from the town square. People can running out, screaming in fear.

"Look like we're going to find out."

I groaned. "I just want to go to bed."

Snotlout came running over to us, out of breath. I stepped forward in concern and placed my hand on his shoulder. I jerked around quickly when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. My eyes widened in shock.

"I… never… thought… I'd say this… but Hiccup…" Snotlout struggled to get the words out between breaths then suddenly grabbed Hiccup by the shoulders. "HELP!"

Hookfang.

The dragon was going berserk, throwing his head around and spewing fire and lava. Hiccup and I looked at each other then took off running toward the dragon. Snotlout, Strike, and Toothless ran after us. Hiccup looked over at Snotlout as we ran. "Tell me everything that happened leading up to this?"

"I don't know what happened. I was just rubbing his head. He usually loves that, but this time he went crazy. My dragon hates me." Snotlout sounded near tears as he tried to explain.

We came to stop at the edge of the town square and watched the dragon stalked around, rubbing his head against the ground. Astrid, Fishlegs, and the twins were there too.

"I've hung around the two of you long enough to know Hookfang doesn't hate you, Snotlout." I tried to comfort him as much as I could, but I had no idea what was going on.

"They do say a pet starts to take on the characteristics of its owner." Fishlegs looked pointedly at Snotlout. "I think that's what's happening here."

"Hey!" Snotlout glared at Fishlegs and roughly elbowed him in the stomach then turned back to watch Hookfang with a worried expression.

Fishlegs doubled over in pain with his arms around his probably bruised stomach. "I rest my case."

I slipped my hand into Snotlout's and he squeezed my hand tightly, watching Hiccup slowly approach his dragon.

"When was the last time he ate?" Hiccup glanced at Snotlout as he edged closer.

"Not for days."

Hiccup grabbed a nearby fish out of a barrel and held it out to Hookfang. "Are you hungry boy?"

Hookfang walked closer to Hiccup and sniffed the fish. He caught it when Hiccup tossed it to him, but then spit it out. Hiccup ducked down and it landed in Stoick's beard.

"Gah, sorry dad."

"We've got to bring this dragon under control."

"Don't worry I can do this!" Hiccup approached Hookfang again and placed his hand on Hookfang's snout. The dragon growled menacingly a bit then quieted down. "There you go, it's going to be okay." Hiccup patted Hookfang's head and the dragon jerked away, blowing fire. He roared in anger.

"Hiccup run!" Astrid yelled.

"Way ahead of you!" Hiccup ran back to the safety of the group

Toothless lunged forward and landed between his rider and the now enflamed dragon. The two of them fought, biting and scratching at each other. Hookfang set a nearby house on fire.

"Toothless stop!" Hiccup ran over and got his dragon to back down, knowing they would destroy the village if the fight continued.

"I've seen enough Hiccup. I'm sorry. We tried it your way." Stoick placed his hand on Hiccup's shoulder they ran off toward the blacksmith forge.

Hiccup walked over to us with his head down. Toothless was trying to hold Hookfang off and I sent Strike out to him.

Snotlout took a step toward him eagerly. "Well?"

Hiccup looked past Snotlout into my eyes. My own eyes widened. "No." My hand went over my mouth in alarm.

"What?" Snotlout looked between Hiccup's downcast face and my horrified expression. Not even the twins were that thick and he figured out what was going on. "No! They can't kill my dragon!"

The rest of the group gathered round and I looked into each of their faces. "We have to think of way to help Hookfang before Stoick and Gobber get here."

We all stood around in a semicircle, but no one said anything.

"C'mon guys! Hurry up! Think! What haven't we tried?" Hiccup watched the furious dragon.

Snotlout turned around and stepped away and everyone's eyes went to him.

"Snotlout, you have an idea?" Hiccup asked eagerly.

Snotlout eyes were fearful as he pointed at something. "Gobber."

Everyone spun around to see Gobber. The Viking was armed to the teeth and looking pretty mean.

"Stand back. I came here to do what I do best." Gobber told us sternly.

"He's going to kill my dragon." Snotlout looked heartbroken.

"No! He's not." Hiccup reassured him.

"Uh, yeah he is." Tuffnut argued.

"You don't use that stuff to butter toast." Ruffnut agreed.

"Well, I mean we would, but you don't."

"You two are not helping the situation!" I screamed at them, my hands curled into claws in front of me.

"Dad! You can't be serious? Hookfang is Snotlout's dragon!" Hiccup yelled in disbelief and ran over to his father.

"I'm sorry Hiccup, but sometimes you to fall back on the old ways." Gobber's voice was hard and very un-Gobber like.

"But he's a good dragon." Hiccup argued.

"He's a good dragon." Snotlout was almost in tears, his voice distraught.

I stepped forward defiantly. It takes a lot to make Snotlout cry and I was getting angry that someone was making him so upset. "Hookfang has saved Snotlout's life multiple times. He was there at the battle with the Queen Dragon. We can't just kill him when things get a little rough!"

"There's probably just something wrong with him." Hiccup pleaded with them.

"There's defiantly something wrong with him." Snotlout cried to them, echoing Hiccup.

"We have to try to help him. We can't just get rid of him, because he's having a bad day."

"A bad day for a dragon can be a disaster for us. That's not a risk I'm willing to take. Gobber." Stoick ended the discussion.

The rest of the teenagers parted when Gobber came through, but I stood in his way. My arms were crossed over my chest and my expression was angry and stubborn.

Gobber glared down at me. "Svala. Move."

"No- Hey!" Stoick grabbed me and held me tightly in his tree trunk arms.

I thrashed around and kicked out, but he wouldn't release me. Gobber threw a bolas at Hookfang and tied his wings together than another at his legs and tied those together. Gobber drew a long sword and I finally stopped fighting.

Hiccup ran over and grabbed Gobber's arm. "I can't let you do this."

"There's no choice. It has to be done."

Hookfang lite himself on fire and burned the roped off, quickly charging up to them. The Monstrous Nightmare roared fiercely at them.

"Do you see that?" Gobber's eyes widened a bit.

"I do." Hiccup released Gobber's arm and the large man returned his blade to its sheath.

"Time to put this beast out of its misery." Gobber rolled him shoulders and went up to Hookfang.

I watched in confusion, Stoick finally putting me down. What was going on?

Astrid ran up. "Hiccup, what are you doing?!"

Hiccup held up at hand to silence her and watched as Gobber attacked the dragon. Gobber lunged forward and grabbed the dragon's head. Hookfang trashed around wildly and threw him off. Gobber grunted and stood back up, but didn't go after him again.

"You didn't kill him!" Snotlout yelled in relief.

"For a toothache?" Gobber held up a rotten dragon's tooth. "What kind of lunatic are you?"

Hookfang calmed down and seemed much happier. He flew over to Snotlout and gently pushed him over. Snotlout laughed as Hookfang nosed him and then scooped Snotlout up with him on his head.

"Stop. Stop it." Snotlout whispered quickly when he noticed everyone watching. "I don't know where that came from. Can you train that out of him… or…?"

Everyone rolled their eyes and walked away. I couldn't hold in my excitement and ran over to Snotlout. I lunged into him arms, wrapping my arms around his neck. Snotlout laughed and wrapped his arms around my waist as he spun me around. He placed me back on my feet and I backed up a couple steps. "I'm good Hookfang's okay."

He smiled down at me. "Me too."

I looked over when Hookfang nudged me then laughed and hugged his enormous head. "Hey, Hookfang."

He had finally found a job for Gobber. A dragon dentist. Not quite as glamorous as making weapons, but Gobber seemed to enjoy it. He even gave Toothless and Strike a free cleaning.

All's well that ends well.


	3. Animal House

**Animal House**

It was the beginning of winter and the ground was cloaked in snow. The village was better off, but the rest of the island was buried. Hiccup and Astrid were off somewhere on the island. I wasn't sure where exactly; I just saw them fly off on their dragons this morning. The twins, Snotlout, and I were having a snowball fight out in the fields. Well, actually, it was more like an all-out war. It was boys vs. girls. Snotlout and mines' competiveness plus the twins' natural inclination to be violent caused things to escalate pretty quickly.

"Ow!" Tuffnut nailed me in the side of head with an icy snowball.

He laughed at me, but stopped when he saw Strike come up beside me.

I growled at Tuffnut. "Ready, Strike?" The Skrill turned sideways and held up his tail.

His eyes widened a bit. "Uh, oh."

I smirked at him and held up a large snowball the size of my head then threw it up in the air. Strike batted it with his tail and sent it flying at Tuffnut. It flew at him faster than his brain could process and hit him square in the face, knocking him flat on his ass.

Ruffnut and I laughed and high-fived when Ruffnut suddenly went flying back from a snowball to the stomach. I spin around to face the assailant. Snotlout. The boy was grinning victoriously. "Give up now babe."

I laughed, smirking at him. "Why? Afraid your girlfriend is going to kick your ass?"

Snotlout cupped his hand over his ear. "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am." He flexed his arms down so his fists touched.

I narrowed my eyes and launched a snowball at him while he was gloating. It was about to hit him when Hookfang blew a small stream of fire at the snow and melted it. "Hey! No fair!" I yelled indignantly.

Snotlout patted his dragon's head. "All's fair in love and war and, baby, we're at war."

"Svala!" "Snotlout!" Ruffnut and Tuffnut yelled to their respective partners.

We looked over and saw that the twins had each built a snowball fort. They were only one sided, but tall enough and long enough that our dragons could duck down behind them. We glanced back at each other and smirked when our gazed locked. Game on.

We dove behind the forts and the battle began. Snowballs were launched back and forth, larger ones sent flying by the tails of our dragons. If you tried to leave the fort you were pelted by ten to fifteen from the other team before you could get back behind it. Ruffnut and I had just turned to tide in our favor after Ruffnut had Barf and Belch melt half of the boys' fort when Astrid, Hiccup, and Fishlegs flew up on their dragons.

"Guys, you are never going to believe what happened! C'mon!" Astrid yelled down at us excitedly then the three of them flew off, not seeming to notice our little confrontation.

Ruffnut and I looked at each then carefully edge out from behind our fort. Snotlout and Tuffnut were doing the same. The four of us stared warily at each other for a moment then climbed onto our dragons, but before we could go Tuffnut and Ruffnut's mother yelled for them to come in for lunch.

"Aw, c'mon!" "Mom!" Ruffnut and Tuffnut groaned.

"NOW!"

We all cringed when she raised her voice and the twins went scrambling home on their dragon. "We'll meet up with you guys later!" Ruffnut yelled back at us.

"Bring me a sandwich!" I yelled at them, though I wasn't sure if they heard or not.

Snotlout and I took off after the others who had stopped to wait for us up ahead. I look down at the snowball in my hand then at Astrid, who was flying in front of me. A sly grin crossed my face and I aimed the ball of frozen water. "Ah!" I screamed when snow exploded on the back of my head. I dropped snowball in my hand, letting it fall harmlessly to the ground. I turned around in my saddle and glared at my laughing boyfriend.

Hookfang sped up to fly beside me. "Looks like I win."

"This time, but next time you're going down."

We landed on a small piece of land, disconnected from the rest of the island, but only by a hundred feet or so. The dragons dropped us off on the top of an old stone tower with a catapult on it that we used to use to fight the dragons. Most of the dragons had enough room to sit behind us, but Hookfang could only fit his head and neck in.

We all sat down on benches in a circular area under the catapult. I leaned forward with my arms on my legs. "Okay so what happened?"

Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other excitedly. "Well, Astrid and I were dragon sledding when an avalanche started. Toothless' tail was frozen shut and I couldn't get it open before we fell into a chasm. Astrid had been trying to grab me and she fell in too and then the dragons used their wings to block the snow."

We were all awed. Fishlegs was especially enthusiastic. "I've never heard of anything like that! Not even in the book of dragons!"

"I know! It was incredible! It's as if their protective instincts just kicked in!" Astrid was bouncing in her seat from excitement.

"Who'd believe it? The dragon's we've fought for years came to our rescue." Hiccup looked behind them at Toothless and Stormfly.

"Yeah, if it weren't for them we would've frozen to death."

"You know what? You could've used your own bodies to keep each other warm." Way to make things awkward Fishlegs.

Hiccup and Astrid's eyes widened and they quickly scooted away from each other. They denied the likelihood of that ever happening and pretty poorly.

"Hey, Astrid. If you're still cold…"Snotlout held his arms out and made a stupid kissy face.

Astrid narrowed her eyes and elbowed the post next to her. It shook the catapult and caused a mound of snow to bury Snotlout.

We heard a muffled "Hey!" from within.

Astrid looked at me and gestured to the snow, or rather, the boy under the snow. "_Why_?"

I shrugged. "I love him. Don't ask me why, I just do."

I looked over when I heard Snotlout's muffled voice. "Hey, babe. Could you give me a hand?"

"Which 'babe' are you talking too, Snotlout?" My voice was teasing, but with a slightly irritated undertone.

"C'mon, Svala! You know I was just kidding!" Snotlout pleaded from beneath the snow.

"You're a big boy, you can get yourself out." I smirked, pretending to inspect my nails.

"Hey, Hiccup!" We looked over the side of the tower at the bridge. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were standing there. "Your father's looking for you."

"He looked angry." Ruffnut smirked and put her hands on her hips.

Hiccup got up and walked over to the edge with Toothless, very unenthusiastic. "He's looked angry since the day I was born, but I'm sure there's no connection. Svala, you better come too."

"Okay." I got up and walked over to wear he was. I paused, remembering my buried boyfriend and turned back to the mound of snow. I met Hookfang's eye and jerked my head toward the snow. He got the message and started melting it.

After Toothless took off, Strike took his place and I mounted him.

"Hey, Svala! Here's your sandwich!" Ruffnut launched a mutton sandwich at me.

I caught it and took a bite. "Thanks Ruffnut!"

Strike flew off after Toothless while I ate my lunch. We landed outside the house and walked inside to see Gobber watching Stoick pace anxiously.

"Geez, where's the fire?" I got their attention, standing over between Hiccup and Stoick.

Stoick paused to glance at us then continued pacing. "Not fire. Snow. There's a big storm coming. We could be locked in. We might not be able to hunt or fish for months."

"But it's way too early for a storm. We're in the middle of winter. Devastating winter isn't due for another month." Hiccup argued.

"Not according to Gothi ."

Hiccup approached his father. "What am I supposed to do? I can't control the weather!"

I crossed my arms. "Yeah, we're dragon trainers, not weather wizards."

"Precisely. If the dragons don't stop scaring the animals we won't have any previsions to live on."

Bucket and Mulch came through the door before he could go on. Stoick walked over greet them. "Any milk?" He grabbed the bucket and looked into then dumped it over. Nothing came out.

"Not a drop. And this is after yanking on that poor yak for three hours." Mulch complained.

Everyone turned their gaze to Hiccup. He back up and put his hand on Toothless. "But it's not like the dragons are trying to be scary. I mean, they don't even eat farm animals! They eat fish!"

"True but they're huge, they breath fire, and now that we've made peace with them they're everywhere. The animals are terrified of them." Gobber explained to us, gesturing wildly.

"This is where you jump in and say I'll fix this." Stoick looked at his son.

"Okay, but how long do we have before the storm hits."

I looked between everyone. "It'd be nice to have a general time frame."

"About a week." Mulch piped up.

"No problem. That's more than enough time!" Hiccup yelled in relief.

Bucket suddenly grabbed onto his bucket and groaned in pain.

"Correction. Three days, six hours."

Wow, that bucket was accurate.

"Uh, okay. Less time. Might be more of a problem."

"The survival of the village depends on you succeeding." Stoick presses him. Yeah, no pressure.

Hiccup pales a bit but I walked over and threw my arm around his shoulders, grinning confidently. "Don't worry, Stoick. We got this."

Stoick didn't look completely convinced, but dropped it. "Alright, you better."

With that, Stoick left with the others. I waited until the door closed then the grin dropped from my face and I sighed. "We got our hands full this time."

"I know, but with the others helping we should be able to get this done in time."

**~ THE ACADEMY ~**

"C'mon big boy. You can do it." Hiccup pulled the yak closer to the dragons with Astrid pushing from behind.

The rest of us were watching with our arms crossed, apprehensive of the idea. We had caught two dragons that had been especially causing trouble with the animals, a Monstrous Nightmare and Deadly Nadder. Both were pastel shades of the rainbow.

The yak braced all four legs when they got near the dragons, but Hiccup continued to try and pull him. "Ah, c'mon. You'll really like them if you get to know them."

"The dragons look scary, but they're just big scaly reptiles." Astrid tried to coax the yak, but it wanted nothing to do with the dragons.

"Just like Snotlout." Tuffnut grinned and pointed over to the larger boy.

Snotlout glared at Tuffnut and quickly snatched him up by the front of his shirt. Tuffnut looked at him with a scared expression and Snotlout paused with his fist held back, looking him up and down. "You're the guy right?"

"…No" Tuffnut spoke with a high-pitched 'girl' voice.

I snickered from beside Snotlout. "That's Tuffnut."

"Why would you say that- Ow!"

Snotlout punched Tuffnut in the face and dropped him to the ground. The other boy laid on the ground in a daze. He smirked and pulled me closer to his side with his arm around my waist. I looked back to Hiccup and Astrid as the dragons snapped at each other. It spooked the yak, which made a scared moo sound and bolted to the other side of the arena.

"Okay, what if we looked at this from an animal's perspective." Fishlegs got onto his hands and knees and crawled around on the ground. "Oh, hello Mr. Dragon. I'm just a little sheep here, walking, doing sheep things. Baa! Baa! You know he really doesn't seem so big."

The Monstrous Nightmare watched Fishlegs curiously for a minute then roared in his face.

"Ah!" Fishlegs screamed and ran over to hide under Meatlug. "Sorry, but I'm siding with the sheep on this one." Fishlegs squeaked out.

"Look, I've learned that once you have a positive experience something you're afraid of it isn't so scary anymore. Okay, there you go boys." Hiccup herded a family of sheep over to the dragons. "Over here. And that's what we've got to do with these sheep. We've got to prove to them that they have nothing to fear."

The Monstrous Nightmare sniffed the sheep then blew fire on them just as Hiccup said "fear". Astrid quickly caught the flaming lamb and Hiccup put it out.

"Oh! At this rate we'll never get any milk or eggs!"

I stood casually with my arms crossed. "We could always eat Fishlegs. He'd last all winter."

"WHAT?!"

Hiccup held up his hand. "Calm down, Fishlegs. Nobody's eating anybody." He assured Fishlegs, who looked like he was about to burst into tears, and sent me a look.

I shrugged nonchalantly in response and walked over to the dragons. "Well, if cannibalism is out of the question then we need to get to work." I placed my hand on the neck of the Monstrous Nightmare. "Since we can't seem to get the animals to come to the dragons how about we get the dragons to come to the animals?"

Astrid smiled. "That's actually a good idea. It'd be much easier than trying to drag that yak." She walked over and helped me take the dragons over to the animals.

The animals huddled together in terror as the serpents strode over, growling menacingly. Hiccup tried to comfort the animals and keep them from running away. After a couple minutes the animals began to stop shaking and their muscles relaxed.

Until, the Monstrous Nightmare sneezed. Fire spewed out of its mouth and splattered against the back wall. A few small flames fell onto the animals and the sheep suddenly went up in flames.

All hell broke loose as animals bolted around the arena and the dragons roared which only spooked them even more. I jumped out of the way of a charging yak and Astrid stopped it before it got any further. The other yak nearly ran Hiccup over, but he merely side stepped.

"Another way for the animals to overcome their fear is to show them that dragons are afraid of things to."

No one looked impressed.

"Remember Magnus the Merciless? He was a pretty scary guy. I was afraid of him until I learned that _he _was afraid of the dark." Astrid explained.

"So during the day _merciless_…" Tuffnut started.

"And during the night… Tuffnut." Ruffnut finished.

Tuffnut roughly jabbed her in the side. "Ow!"

"Hey, that's a real problem." Tuffnut mumbled.

"I'm just saying knowing he was afraid of something made him less scary to me."

Hiccup rummaged around in the basket behind Astrid until he found a pair of eels.

"Yes. So let's show the yaks that the dragons are afraid of things too."

He walked through the yaks who barely glanced at the eels clutched in his hands. Hiccup then held them up before the dragons who screeched and reeled back in fear. The yaks looked at each other and made yak sounds.

"I think it's working." Astrid said in a sing song voice.

"Hm." I made a small noise of surprise. It was actually working.

One of the eels suddenly slipped out of Hiccup's hand and slithered toward the Monstrous Nightmare. The dragon screamed and shied away, slamming one of the sheep with its tail in the process. The sheep went flying through the air and crashed into the opposing wall with a thud.

Never mind.

Hiccup groaned and put his head in his hands.

Astrid put her hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry."

"Worry?! I'm not worried! Do I look worried?" Hiccup had a slightly unstable expression on his face.

I looked over at the dragons at one end of the arena then at the animals cowering in the other end.

"We're going to die."

**~ 10 MINUTES LATER ~**

"Ha! Gotcha!"

I held on tightly to the sheep after having tackled it. Snotlout came over with the other two tucked under his arms. The twins were each restraining a yak. And Hiccup was scooping up the chickens.

"You know what I'm learning from this? Chickens are really, well, chicken." Hiccup set them down once Astrid had the dragons calmed down.

"What if we showed them how much they had in _common_ with the dragons?" Fishlegs said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

We all gave him funny looks.

"They both lay eggs right? A Terrible Terror laid one last week." Fishlegs reached into his satchel and pulled out a large green egg.

He set it on the ground and the hens rushed over excitedly. One settled on top of it and the other two sat down beside it.

"Alright! See? An eggs an egg. Right, ladies?" Hiccup grinned, glad a plan was finally working out.

Red glowing cracks suddenly spread over the egg and it suddenly exploded. The tree hens were shot off into three directions. The flaming pieces of egg spooked the yaks and they bolted.

"Until it explodes." Hiccup slumped his shoulders.

I snickered on the sidelines. This was going _great_.

"Everybody out! The storm is here!" Gobber and Mulch burst into arena, shouting frantically.

Just as he said that snow began to fall from the angry, gray sky. Gobber started to gather up the animals.

"W-Wait! We haven't made any progress with the animals!" Hiccup tried to stop him, but Gobber would not be deterred.

"Your father wants everyone in the Great Hall!"

"Take the others. I need to stay and keep working with the animals. They're still afraid."

"You can't get eggs from a frozen chicken! We've got to get the animals in the barn!"

I walked over to them, my eyes squinting against the snow and icy wind. "He's right Hiccup. We need to go now."

Hiccup hesitated for moment, but eventually nodded. "Alright, let's go."

Everyone helped to round up the animals and then herded them to the barn. The two dragons we caught were released so they could find shelter and our own dragons were called. Unfortunately, the barn was located far outside the village at the base of a cliff and by the time we got there it was buried in snow and sealed by ice.

Gobber shrugged. "So much for the barn."

"There's no other place to hold them!" Mulch cried.

"The Great Hall!" Hiccup pointed to the large building.

"So we're going to have the dragons and the animals under the same roof? We know that won't work." Mulch sighed in defeat.

"Well it's going to have to work!" I yelled through the ever increasing wind.

"We've got no choice. Let's go." Hiccup started back down toward the building where the rest of the village was already safe from the storm.

We surrounded the animals to keep them from wandering off and the dragon followed at a safe distance from us so as not to spook them. Lightning struck from out of nowhere and hit a tree full force. In turn, the tree fells and slammed to the ground in front of Stormfly. Stormfly squawked in alarm and accidentally wacked Hookfang in the head with her spiked tail. Hookfang roared and reared back, erupting into flames. He shot a ball of fire into the group of livestock. The frightened animals took off in all directions, fleeing from an enraged Hookfang.

I whipped around as a yak came bolting past me and headed straight for Snotlout. "Watch out!"

"Hey, I've got this under control!" He braced his body to stop the large animal.

Five hundred and fifty pounds of muscle and fur slammed into Snotlout and set him flying into the air. He landed on his stomach in the snow just as fifteen hundred more pounds ran him over. I flinched every time one of the three yaks ran over him.

"Okay, everything hurts." He groaned with his face in snow.

"Sorry, babe!" I called out to him and chased after a chicken.

I yelped as a sheep ran out in front of me and I tripped over it, face planting into the snow. I hauled myself to my feet, spitting out snow in the process. Damn it, brain freeze.

Hiccup took off into the storm on Toothless just as I got my bearings. I had no idea what was going on so I just followed his lead and jumped on Strike. We took off at the same time as Astrid and flew side by side. Gobber was yelling something as the others followed behind us.

"What's going on?!" I yelled over the howling wind.

"We're going after the animals!" Astrid screamed back though I barely heard it.

I nodded, but didn't bother trying to answer her. I tried to keep my eyes open as much as possible, but the freezing wind and ice stung horribly so I could only manage to squint. Toothless shot plasma blasts into the open air to light our way which helped a small bit.

The gale carried Hiccup's voice to us. "You find as many as you can! We'll herd them back to the Great Hall!"

"Can we swing by my house?! I'd like to get my heavy coat." Fishlegs shivered.

I turned around to look at him. "No!"

The twins could be heard fighting in the back, but I didn't care enough to actually listen to what they were saying. I heard Hiccup yell something and turned my attention back to him. The animals were down below us. How the hell did they move so fast? The yaks I could kind of believe, but chickens? Seriously?

"C'mon!" Hiccup yelled as Toothless dove toward the yak.

Strike followed close behind, closing his wings around us. The rest of the group split off to go after the chickens and sheep. Strike's wings snapped open when we were just above the yaks.

"Yaks stop!" They kept running. "Whoa!" They still kept running. "Halt!" Still running.

"I SAID STOP!" I screeched at them. Strike shot a lightning bolt into their path. The yaks stopped…

"Yes!" I cheered.

…then turned and ran in a different direction.

"I hate these stupid animals!" I screamed into the wind and took off after them.

I narrowed my eyes to see through the white foreground, but it was no use. The snow was too thick to see through. Or maybe not. A dark shadow suddenly appeared in front of me.

"What is that?" I wondered, straining to see through the snow.

Snotlout and Hookfang appeared in front of me, Snotlout screaming. My eyes widened and I screamed as our dragons crashed together and the four of us went plummeting to the ground. I landed in soft snow and sunk down a few feet. Upon crawling out, I saw Strike shaking himself off nearby but Snotlout and Hookfang were nowhere to be seen.

Strike walked over to me. I wrapped my arms around my shaking body and looked around. I saw some forms off to my left and headed toward them. Hiccup, Toothless, and his father were standing there.

He waited for me to get to them before talking. "You kids shouldn't be out here."

Hiccup hung his head in shame. "Dad… I'm sorry I let you down."

"It's not your fault, son. It's not any of your faults. I'm taking all of you back."

Gobber came up to us. "Which way?!"

I looked around. That was an excellent question.

"Follow our tracks!" He stated confidently, but when we all looked there were no tracks to be found. They had been covered by the snow.

"So much for that idea!" Gobber stated as the rest of the group gathered with us.

I turned back to him and held my arm up to block the wind from my face. "Do you have a Plan B?"

"Sir, what do we do now?" Fishlegs squeaked out, fear evident in his voice.

I looked over at Fishlegs then back up at Stoick. My arms immediately wrapped protectively around my body as it began to shake violently. The cold finally started to set in. In all of us. Hiccup, Astrid, Snotlout, and the twins were all shivering just as bad as me.

"Everyone. Come together." Stoick commanded us.

Unable to talk through our chattering teeth, we silently did as he said and huddled together. Stoick and Gobber wrapped their arms around us to protect us from the deadly cold as best they could. Snotlout wrapped his arms around me and I did the same, burying my head into his chest. I could barely feel him nuzzle his head into the crook of my neck.

After a bit, I felt the rest of the group pull away. I lifted my head to see what was going on. The dragons were circling around us. We watched at they stood up on their hind legs and spread their wings, creating a sort of dome around us.

"What are they doing?" Stoick voiced everyone's thoughts.

"They're protecting us." Hiccup stated in amazement.

"It they're natural instinct." Astrid whispered.

We looked around at our dragons in awe. This was truly amazing.

Hookfang opened his mouth and blew a small stream of fire. The rest of the dragons followed suit.

I sighed in contentment as the gust of warmth hit me. I looked up at Snotlout, who was smiling down at me, and smiled back. Toothless suddenly bounded away. Turning my attention to him, I saw Toothless nudging the young sheep toward us. He quickly ran back over when it started toward us. It looked up at the large dragons as it passed into the circle then turned back to its parents and called to them. They followed cautiously, but then relaxed when they realized the dragons weren't going to hurt them. The other animals saw this and migrated into the circle. I smiled when little sheep curled up by Toothless.

"Your dragons are really something, son." Stoick spoke softly.

"Yeah. They are." He agreed.

At some point during the night I fell asleep, because the next thing I knew it was morning and the snow had stop. I tried to get up, but didn't get too far because Snotlout's arms were wrapped around my waist. I turned over to wake him up and screamed at the top of my lungs. Tuffnut's eyes snapped open and he yelled just as loud as I did. His arms unwound from my waist and I immediately jumped to my feet.

"Why were you cuddling me?!" I screamed at him, utterly horrified.

"I wasn't cuddling you I swear!" Tuffnut held up his hands, his face beat red.

"Then why were your arms around my waist?!" I snarled, the shock quickly being replaced with anger.

"Your arms were _where_!" Snotlout roared. He stomped over to us, looking completely enraged.

"W-Wait! Snotlout! No! I swear! I didn't mean to!" Tuffnut kicked his feet, scrambling backwards.

Snotlout quickly snatched Tuffnut up by the front of his shirt. His fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles were turning white. Tuffnut kept trying to plead with my boyfriend, but it fell on deaf ears. He finally shut up when Snotlout's fist smashed into his face and he went flying backwards. Snotlout landed a few more punches on him before he was satisfied then backed off and came to my side, hugging me tightly.

I rest my head on his shoulder and smiled. "You didn't have to do that you know. I could have done it myself."

"I know. I just couldn't help myself. You can still take a shot if you want?" I couldn't see Snotlout, but I knew he was grinning.

My eyes landed on Tuffnut, who was slowly standing up. A nasty bruise was already forming on his right eye. I smirked.

"Nah. I think he's had enough."

We both pulled back a bit then met in passionate kiss. My arms slithered up around his neck, my fingers twisting into his brunette hair. His hands lowered to grip my hips, pulling me against him. Just as things started to really heat up someone coughed loudly. We broke apart and looked over to see everyone giving us disgusted looks.

Opps. I forgot about them.

Astrid crossed her arms over his chest. "Only you two could find violence romantic."

I grinned cheekily. "Yep."

The others rolled their eyes and we got to work herding the animals to the Great Hall now that we could actually see where the hell we were. I grabbed a sheep and lifted it into my shoulders, beginning the long trudge through the snow. We were back within the hour and two villagers opened the doors for us. The villagers cheered excitedly. I deposited the sheep with the others.

"Hey, everyone!" Astrid caught their attention.

"The chickens are laying eggs again!" Hiccup yelled out, holding up an egg with a hen in his other arm.

How the hell is that fair?! He gets to carry a three pound chicken and I have to carry a hundred and fifty pound sheep!

I crossed my arms with an irritated look and turned to look at everyone. The dragons and animals were mingling together as though they had never been enemies. I couldn't help the smile that crossed my face when I saw the family of sheep tucked under Stormfly's wing and Strike fast sleep among the yaks.

Just when we thought we knew all about the dragons they surprised us with something like this.


End file.
